Engadget posts interview with Nikon USBy
Mike Tomkins(Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - 17:05 EDT)Consumer electronics website Engadget has posted an interview with Steve Heiner, general manager of Digital SLR Systems for Nikon Inc., that makes for fairly interesting reading.The interview (with journalist J.D. Lasica asking questions on behalf of Engadget) covers a range of topics, starting out by looking at the company's transition to digital imaging, as well as how the entire industry is dealing with the transition. Heiner also talks about how he feels Nikon's products compare with the competition, and why certain design choices have been made in recent Nikon digital SLRs.

One point in the interview is likely to provoke significant debate. Lasica attempted no less than six times to ask Heiner questions related to RAW files, Adobe's DNG RAW file format, and the recent controversy relating to Nikon's encryption of RAW file metadata. Each time, Saurabh Wahi (a representative from Nikon's US PR agency) steps in to refer to Nikon's recent advisory document as being the company's official position on such questions. This is perhaps not very surprising, simply because such answers really would have to come from Nikon's headquarters in Japan.